Original subtitles

Introducing the challenger, the Iron Sheik!

Wrestling fans believe that the Iron Sheik was every despicable thing that he

presented himself to be. One of the perfect bad guys or heels in wrestling.

And everybody wanted to come and see him, hoping that he'd get beat up.

The Iron Sheik!

Iran! Iran!

Iran!

His look was believable, the way he talked was believable.

He was very easy to hate.

The whole package of being a wrestler in that

era was pretty dark.

The use of cocaine was prevalent.

He was developing a very serious drug problem.

Instead of battling opponents, they are fighting drug charges.

This is undoubtedly the most painful part of the Iron Sheik story.

He screamed, he howled, he cried.

I cry for her so much. I miss her so much.

She gave them maybe the highest element of a heel. The biggest box office

attraction that the industry had really ever seen.

Capacity crowd on the case of the Iron Sheik.

People were blowing stuff at him. You know, that's how much heat that people

just didn't like him.

Sheik now going to work.

It's easy to not like him. It's so different.

The Sheik loved being hated.

The Hulk's got to come out of it. It's over.

Oh! Oh! Okay.

You listen.

Ah! Pull!

It needs a camel punch to fly. I'm scared. That's all.

Zero. Southrop did the right thing at the right time and became larger than

life.

It was very tough to leave my country, Iran.

I worked hard for this woman in my

life.

By dream and hard working, I become champion.

champion, the Iron Sheik.

Khosrow Vaziri was born in Dagham, which was a town about

215 miles outside of Tehran, Iran.

After the family lived in the country for a few years, They made a decision to

move to the city, Tehran. And what the parents did was they opened up a

wrestling gym.

Wrestling in Iran was like religion.

If you knew how to wrestle, that got you in places.

Wrestling was in Iran big, very, very big.

Wrestling is koshigiri, as they would call it in Farsi.

Iranian men love to wrestle, and they're pretty badass at it and good at it.

He achieved success very quickly.

I mean, he was just so driven.

And then army champion. And then three times national champion.

After the army, Khosrow had a very sweet job.

He was given a job as an assistant cameraman at Iranian national

he worked directly for the Shah's cousin.

At the time that the Shah was in power, the Sheikh, who was literally a lethal

weapon, was handpicked by the Shah of Iran and his family to protect him.

Later on, you'd hear stories about the Iron Sheik used to be a bodyguard for

Shah and everyone thought it was wrestling hype. It wasn't wrestling

was legit.

Above all, the one guy you can say was the pinnacle of athletics and wrestling

was Golem Reza Tafti.

He was a multi -time Olympic champion, gold medalist.

and was the pride and joy of the Iranian people.

So just like all the Iranians growing up, the Sheikh idolized Taqdi.

Taqdi was the greatest Iranian champion.

We had to go Olympic and then for Olympic and come back home always

with medal.

The Sheikh?

really looked up to Takhti because Takhti was the kind of wrestler, the

athlete, the kind of human being he wanted to be.

And at a certain stage, Takhti began mentoring a young Qasr al -Fahiri.

He was his mentor, he was his idol, and the Sheikh just wanted to be exactly

like him. There was no one else. He had his sights set.

Takhti was the man, and the Sheikh was going to be the one to follow in his

footsteps.

The problem with Takhti was he was not that deferential to the Shah, and the

Shah was an absolute ruler.

The Shah was a brutal dictator, and Takhti was kind of a man of the people,

very progressive figure.

One day there was a massive soccer match, and the Shah of Iran was sitting

the stands, and the fans started to get really disgruntled and boo him. And

Takhti... entered the arena, and everyone started cheering him.

Now, in addition to that,

Takhti was not afraid to speak out about flaws he saw in the

Iranian government.

And ultimately, I believe, that led to Takhti's undoing.

The death of Takhti is still one of the country of Iran's most unsolved

mysteries. Some people said that he was killed for opposing the government,

while others said that he had committed suicide.

They seem very curious.

to a young Khosrow Vaziri, because he knew Tochti, and Tochti was

not a man to take his own life, and became convinced

that Tochti was not the victim of suicide, he was the victim of homicide.

And he drew the conclusion, if the government can kill Tochti, who knows

can happen to me?

I don't want to talk about politicians too much, but I said, if you don't know

good for a taxi, better I go some day, too, because he was the greatest chap

when we had him, and nobody knew how he passed away.

Here's a cat that was a bodyguard for the Shah.

If he hadn't have gotten out of there, they would have killed him, man, chopped

him up to pieces.

At that time, Hosro had been Princess Farah's bodyguard in the royal palace.

And he fled.

And he only knew two words in English, which were Alan and Rice.

And when he landed at the Minneapolis -St. Paul International Airport, he just

kept saying, Alan Rice, Alan Rice, because no one at the airport spoke

And Alan Rice was eventually reeked.

At the Pan -American Games...

Kaz had met Alan Rice. Alan Rice was an American Olympic wrestler and later the

coach of the U .S. Olympic wrestling team.

Alan Rice had made it clear that he would love for Kaz to come to the U .S.

and train with the Minnesota Wrestling Club.

Mr. Alan Rice was quite...

a lifesaver to cause in the fact that he took him under his wing.

He treated him like his own son.

And I'm an assistant coach for him, help the team.

And I see myself too. And I come three times All -American champion.

He was so skilled and so knowledgeable that Alan Rice, when he became the coach

of the U .S. Olympic team, he asked Kaz to be his assistant coach.

And in 1972 and 1976, Kaz Rao Vaziri was an assistant coach of the

U .S. Olympic team.

And this led to his early character in...

pro wrestling. Everyone thought he started out as the Iron Sheik. No, he

out as basically an All -American who would come to the ring with a singlet

the Olympic rings around it. And he was depicted as an American hero.

He had the Iranian accent.

He had a full head of hair. Very different character than we saw later

Alan Rice was the head of the U .S. amateur wrestling in Minnesota. And

he was the one that met Khadra Vasuri, better known as the Iron Sheik.

My father Vern was the sponsor for the 1972 Olympic wrestling team.

So that's how him and Alan Rice got together, and Alan is the one that

eventually asked Vern if he would take Cosgrove and turn him into a

wrestler. At that time, Minneapolis was Vern Gagne's AWA headquarters.

He controlled wrestling all the way from Chicago to the West Coast.

I'll talk to Mr. Alan Rice.

I'd like to go someday professional.

And then I go in the training camp.

It was in an old barn out in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

It was pretty... It was rough looking.

Vern Gagne was a little bit on the thrifty side.

They trained in this old barn under really...

trying circumstances. Apparently it was freezing in the wintertime.

You know,

Vern was not big on any

kind of personal comfort.

It was six days a week and it was like almost six hours a day.

Vern Gagne would beat you and work you like a dog.

stretch you and make you scream in the ring and make you work on his farm.

The guys that had been amateur wrestlers would come in and they could do a

really hard workout that Vern would put them through, but the other guys, he

would just completely destroy them.

Two hundred and thirty!

That's kind of how Vern weeded out those who didn't belong there.

He had such high expectations that only the toughest and the strongest and the

most athletic got through his program.

We go and practice, practice, but he didn't stop.

Remember, falling is basic. You've got to know how to fall. If you don't know

how to fall, you're going to get hurt. And if you're hurt, you can't wrestle.

you can't wrestle, you don't eat.

It's that simple.

My father actually turned out 133 wrestlers throughout his career.

and only 1 % didn't make it as a main eventer. Now, this was a really blue

class. Ric Flair was in the class, jumping Jim Brunzel. We got Ken Patera

the Olympics, and then Greg, and then Cosgrove.

Oh, hang on, they're outside the ring.

Oh, look at that.

Flair chopping T .A. the down.

Ric Flair is in the conversation for greatest of all time.

alongside the Iron Sheik.

It's an incredible lineup.

Well, he was a natural as far as stamina.

He was in great shape.

The hardest thing that Cosgrove had to learn about pro wrestling was the fact

that he had been indoctrinated so long by the amateur wrestling and rules, it

was hard to, you know, teach somebody a new trick.

It's different.

Different technique, different move.

You have to convince the people we are real on that ring.

Otherwise, if the people think it's phony, no good.

Dive over the arm. Dive over.

If you made it through the 14 weeks of training camp, you earned the right to

become a professional wrestler.

And then Fern would come to you personally and tell you, whether you

or not.

From that class, the Sheik got a job, his first job in America as a

wrestler. But not just a professional wrestler, he had to be the referee

And he had to drive the truck.

Myself and Kazo, we were the two that were picked to, we had to drive the ring

truck around.

It

was

hard for him at first because he had to travel around all the small.

matches around the Midwest. He had to learn the whole business.

And, you know, he's starting out in his, probably his mid -30s.

I mean, this was a man that was coming from being the bodyguard of the Shah of

Iran to now living this simpler life and started from scratch.

He wasn't the Iron Sheik then. I mean, this was just Khosrow Vaziri.

Khosrow Vaziri realized he wasn't going back to Iran.

And he was enjoying the life of an American.

He's living in Minnesota.

Why not go out with a nice, sweet -natured, pretty Scandinavian girl? And

how he met his wife.

I met my future husband on a nice summer evening, and we just hit it off

immediately, like we'd known each other forever.

He was living in Minnesota, and he had met his wife.

And so every Saturday night, as soon as we were done wrestling, he would drive

to Minnesota, no matter where we were, to visit Terrell, and then we'd come

for the Monday show.

Kaz doesn't do anything halfway.

We saw each other if he was in town every night. He was quite intense.

We had Marissa in August 1976, and

it was...

an easy birth compared to the later ones that I had.

He loved his wife and his family, and he did everything he could to beat

Cosgrove. I'm sorry for them.

My understanding is that when the Sheik first started professional wrestling, it

was more about his history as an athlete.

He did Olympic wrestling. He wore a singlet. He had hair. He was handsome.

was in shape.

But he wasn't getting anywhere. He wasn't getting where he wanted to go.

When the sheet broke into Rutland, there was no character, and his entire game

was very dry.

Ali Ghatiri, nice guy, but not enough. I get

work so I can make a good living.

I say, I'm tired. I don't want to work. Good guy anymore. I want to be bad guy.

And then Mrs. Ghania.

Tell me I have a new name, good name for you.

You know, my mother, we were having dinner, and that's when she said, good

for you would be the Iron Sheik.

The Iron Sheik completely changed his physical appearance, and he became the

Iron Sheik.

And it was almost a symbol, this foreign menace, that was what so many Americans

feared at the time.

Right now, it's all one way. The Sheik is definitely carrying it to him.

As he.

developed and personality came out of him. All of a sudden, the light went on

and he was the Iron Sheik.

Introducing the challenger, the Iron Sheik.

Some 60 Americans are now beginning their sixth day of captivity inside the

.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The Iranian students took Americans hostage at the American Embassy.

Lasted for 444 days.

It was broadcast nightly on television.

This flag was burned Tuesday evening outside the embassy's gates.

When we had conflict with Iran, all of a sudden that became, well, here's a

heel.

And the rest, you know, as they say, is history.

The Iron Sheik, along with Freddie Blassie, and they are thick as thieves.

All of a sudden he was the Iron Sheik from Tehran, and he brought a lot of

And everybody wanted to come and see him and hoping that he'd get beat up.

Iran number one, that's what he would say.

They wanted to find an antagonist to the American protagonist.

What better antagonist than an Iranian?

When the Iron Sheik realized...

Everybody is against this country. He ramped it up by 11 and

realized that this could make him the biggest villain in wrestling. Between

accent and the look.

And the way he looked down on the audience and spit.

In the physicality of the way he brutalized opponents.

Every territory in the United States wanted the Iron Sheik to be their top

guy.

Every

single

night, you could turn on the news.

And you saw Americans being paraded blindfolded by Iranian

militants. This morning, for the first time since the hostages were put under

lock and key, one of the captives blindfolded was brought out into the

So there was not a lot of love for the Iranian people in the United States at

the time. Sadly, there was also a lot of racism completely unwarranted.

Back then, they used to call you effing Iranian.

That was a thing. They call you F -ing Iranian to beat you up. We were made fun

of. We were even tied to a tree once at school.

If you said I'm Iranian or I was born in Iran, you were basically saying I'm a

hostage taker and I support what Iran has done to your American people.

Well, I don't have to say about Persian carpets, Persian cats, Persian

pistachio. Everything you want over there that was the best, just like the

orange sheep. So for anyone growing up at that time who was Iranian,

Seeing the Sheik on TV was thrilling.

It is the winner, the Iron Sheik!

Though hated, and though used as a heel, it allowed them to have something to

cheer for.

I love wrestling so much, I didn't have a choice. I want to stay in this

business. To me, it was a natural and a way to be well and healed.

Very, very painful hole. He's really pulling back with that man's chin.

What made the Sheik such a good villain?

I think it's real simple.

What you see is what you get.

He understood the politics of the moment very well.

In the fans' eyes, they thought he was best friends with the Ayatollah. In

mind, they could just envision the Iron Sheik and the Ayatollah having drinks at

the end of the day, right?

and spitting on the American flag.

All of those things help to solidify his image of one of the perfect villains,

bad guys, or heels in wrestling. So someone sitting at home is going, yep,

know what, that guy, he's probably still working for those people over there.

And the Iron Sheik played up to everyone's internal fears of that

menace.

Wrestling fans believe that the Iron Sheik was every despicable thing that he

presented himself to be.

One of the rather unusual methods that you use in your training is the use of

some sort of Persian clubs, correct?

Exactly. He had

these things called the Persian clubs, which looked like two enormous...

bowling pins or something. He picked those two Persian clubs up, and he just

started twirling them over his head just so gracefully. It was as if they

weighed 10 pounds at the most.

Lift those 75 -pound clubs and begin to twirl them about.

Not to use this term lightly, but unbelievable strength, because he could

them up and twirl them like you would a knife and a fork.

He's trying to work them.

I would think it's quite easy to get hurt with those clubs growing up if you

don't know what you're doing.

A lot of big, strong, powerful men.

Couldn't do them, but the Sheik, man, he could use those clubs like nobody's

business. None of us could do it.

We all tried.

Damn, things were so heavy, and I tried a couple times. I thought I was going to

break my wrist.

I used to watch Sheik.

They're doing them freaking clubs.

Inside the locker room, and then I could see him.

Go over there and just start twisting his mustache and start slapping his

What the Iron Sheik wanted to do was make his character bigger.

And the way to do that was add little touches

to his ring attire.

These are presumably or ostensibly decorations.

What he would do is, when times got tough, he would turn his back to the guy

was wrestling.

He'd more or less... kicked his toe into the mat and

supposedly loaded the toe.

Rod whips it to the foot here.

Oh, my.

No, I was never a victim of the camel clutch, and I'm so friggin' glad I

Look at it now, setting it up, pulling the arms back. Once he gets it, he sets

the rocks back.

It's give -up time.

He's got to look at it, pulling one out there. That is painful.

Camel clutch.

A move that you don't want to be into.

The dreaded camel clutch.

The only move that I still don't know how you can get out of physically.

It's an extremely painful and somewhat torturous maneuver.

He's got to look at him pulling on that neck. He just had a way of doing it. It

was so impure.

Hammer clutch, fans, that move hurts.

Perhaps one of the most sadistic men in professional wrestling today.

One of the only matches that I actually got hurt to the point where I had to

have stitches was with Cosgrove. So Cosgrove holds a real dear spot in my

A group of folks in the audience with a large American flag in retaliation to

the flag brought in by the Iron Chief.

At one point, Jerry the King Lawler.

painted the face of the Ayatollah Khomeini on the Iranian flag.

We see the likeness of Ayatollah Khomeini on the colors of Iran and the

Sheik.

We were just talking in the locker room, and I said something about, hey, Sheik,

you know, I'm an artist. I said, I would just think that it would look great if

in the middle of that just empty white space of that flag, if I did a portrait

of the Ayatollah.

And I'm telling you, immediately his eyes went... He said, oh, Jerry

Lawler, make me famous with this flag.

They see me with the Iranian flag, and I have total faces in the middle of the

flag. That was a real shoot hit.

He is indeed one of the great World Wrestling Federation athletes.

However, again, a lot of people do not like the Iron Sheik.

Heat is the power that you have that's measured in the way the audience reacts

to you. Heat means they're booing you. Heat means that they hate you.

When you really have heat, people are going to the arena not only wanting you

lose, but they themselves want to kill you.

That's the heat that the Iron Sheik had.

The Sheik had a sense that you go, as a fan, I know this guy's not going to play

fair.

And that type of heat is lasting.

The heat that the Sheik had, the word I like to use is blistering.

Walking out to the ring, the fans started booing him. He didn't even have

anything.

I know what they're saying, but I'm not saying it.

Capacity crowd on the case of the Iron Sheik.

People were throwing stuff at him. You know, that's how much heat that people

just didn't like him.

Oh, they threw everything in the ring.

Everything in the ring was packed.

The Iron Sheik.

Because he was so brash and bold and braggadocio, it was opposite our views.

It was easy to not like him. He was so different.

The Sheik loved being hated.

And loved doing whatever he could do to tap into you to get you to hate him.

Devastating suplex.

Prior to the early 1980s, wrestling was not a national sport.

It was divided up into territories. There was no one singular base.

The country was split up into regional territories, and the means of

distribution were local TV stations.

That's prior to cable television and prior to Vince McMahon's national

expansion. When Vince Jr.

purchased WWE from his father, he decided that he wanted to take that

national.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Championship Wrestling.

This is Vince McMahon here at ringside standing next to wrestling's living

legend, Bruno Sammartino.

Vince McMahon came along and had a vision that I'm going to go into these

markets and I'm going to pay these television stations to be on the air.

That was the transition from a business perspective that took the WWE from a

regional Northeast promotion to a national promotion.

We shall return here with the festivities beginning in just a few

I think that when Vince McMahon decided to take WWE National, he knew he wanted

a product that would penetrate pop culture, and he knew he wanted a show

was about these over -the -top, marketable characters.

That was the vision that transitioned from professional wrestling

to sports entertainment, and Sheik was a huge part of that.

When Vince took over and made the WWE what it is today, he decided that Bob

no longer to be the champion.

Bob Buckland was a good champion, but people get tired of him.

They want to see the better change.

Well, the place needed to be shaken up, and you had five years of plain white

milk toast.

You know, Backlund, great wrestler, but not an attraction.

By golly, one way or another, whether he beats me or not, I'm going to go in

there and fight to the last.

Bob was an incredible amateur wrestler, but Bob didn't have a whole lot of

color. He didn't have a character that was very colorful.

Apparently, Bob Backlund doesn't think that certain people should be able to

beat him.

And if he was going to lose a match, he thought it was important that he lost a

match. to somebody that could legitimately beat him.

Introducing first to my left, the challenger, the Iron Sheik.

He knew he had the title match, and he didn't know how it was going to end.

No, I didn't know. Surprise, Mr.

McVincombe told me.

And my wife didn't know.

I was in the crowd at the Garden the

night the Iron Sheik defeated Bob Backlund. And it was just stunning.

Because Bob Backlund had held the WWE title for five years.

You don't think you're going to see the title change hands with the Garden.

People bought tickets to watch the Iron Sheik

get beat.

Nothing could upset them more than buying a ticket to see the Iron Sheik

the biggest match conceivable.

the WWE Championship match.

Now he's got it!

He hooked Backlund back, he's right in the center of the ring!

And Backlund's got a bad neck! Pull on it!

Oh! Pull on it!

Backlund did not submit, Arnold scored it!

If I'm correct, that's a Seamless submission, we have a new champion in

World Wrestling Federation!

From the Iron Seekers.

won the title.

I mean, it rocked the wrestling world.

I was sitting

in the front row and they said that he won and he put the hand in the air and I

was numb.

I was like, no way.

It's theater and drama at its highest.

Shakespeare would have been proud.

It was stunning. Like, I kept thinking there was going to be some type of

reversal.

And Sheik walked out of there with that title, and we basically usher in a new

era.

My life changed a little bit, but it got more famous, more territory

using me.

The Iron Sheik from Tehran, Iran, currently wears the gold.

Sheik really had a recipe of what makes a great heel.

There was nothing really to like about the Sheik in his prime. He was a really,

really good heel. Everything was believable about him.

His look was believable.

The way he talked was believable.

And so he was very easy to hate.

The fans who

loved to hate him would also love to hurt him.

They're asking somebody to bear the brunt of this and actually, you know,

their life.

I knew there were problems because I was good friends with the Iron Sheik's

wife. You know, the mail would come and, oh my gosh, this is another death

threat. And I was like, oh my God, you've got to be kidding me. I was very,

lucky. As a matter of fact, two, three times they called Mr. McMahon.

For example, if the Iron Sheik comes to Albany or Providence, Rhode Island,

they're going to shoot me because they know that I'm a real Iranian.

I mean, the guy had to be escorted by police. He had to go into the trunks of

cars, leave the building.

The fans were really out of control sometimes.

Sometimes he'd even be stabbed in the arm.

I'm sure he's been cut.

We've all been cut. That's sort of your baptism of fire when somebody cuts you.

No guy had bigger cojones than him.

He was walking around.

at the height of people hating Iranian and walking into stadiums, stadiums with

70 ,000 people that all wanted to kill him.

I mean, you don't have bigger balls than that.

When the Iron Sheik won the WWE championship, I think fans didn't

that they were seeing the end of an era.

If you want to make a great hero, and you're looking for a new hero to lead

company, he has to overcome something big.

And to beat someone like Bob Backlund, that had been a fan favorite for many

years, that's not a way to make a hero, because you're beating a hero doing

that. However, if you have an evil menace, like the Iron Sheik come in and

your All -American hero, and make it throw in the towel, then you need a

-than -life hero to come in and overtake that nemesis.

What happened to Bob Buckley? What happened to his arm? What happened to

shoulder? Now they're putting Hulk Hogan, the biggest American animal.

When the Iron Sheik won the WWE Championship, it signaled a change in

business would be presented.

The Iron Sheik was a supervillain. He would go on to be defeated by a

Hulk Hogan. And the Hulkamania era would begin.

There he is, Hulkamania.

So I'm hanging on this bar after the match at Madison Square Garden, and fans

are speculating about what might happen next.

And one guy standing at the bar says, I heard that Hulk Hogan is going to come

in and win the title. And I look at my friends and I go, who's this guy getting

this information?

Hulk Hogan's working for Vern Gagne in Minnesota.

Never would happen in a million years.

Vince's vision of taking a company national, he had to have a hood

had to have a centerpiece.

Wrestling, when it's at its best, has a good guy and a bad guy.

To set that protagonist up, the equal antagonist with the equal

protagonist, Hulk versus Sheik.

It was a match made in heaven. You go bring that animal Hulk Hogan for no

because I don't know the guy. I never met the guy. It doesn't get any better

than that. I mean, that's the perfect storyline, the perfect reality -based

storyline, and it wasn't something a writer wrote. It was really happening.

Vern Gagne in particular is very resentful of this because until very

Hulk Hogan had been working for him.

So the story that the Iron Sheik has told, that Vern Gagne called him and

Sheiky baby, do not lose the title to Hogan. Go out there, break his leg,

and bring the title back to Minnesota.

I'll give you $100 ,000.

Now, he trained Khosrow Vaziri.

His wife had given Khosrow the Iron Sheik name. And so there was this

that the Iron Sheik owes us a favor.

Byrne got to him and said, if you break Hulk Hogan's leg, I'll give you a

hundred grand.

This is the main event.

It is for the World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship.

Well, the reaction was...

Insane. When I came out spinning and turning in 20 different directions and

up on the apron and I pointed at the sheet that grew up below me and I came

and ripped the shirt off, it was already there.

Introducing first, the challenger, from Venice Beach, California,

the incredible Paul Brugge.

I'm going through this and oh my gosh, this is going to be...

a huge lightning bolt to right.

It

has

been so established, the camel clutch with Aaron Sheik, that once he put it on

you, nobody got out.

I knew if I broke the hold, the place would erupt and it was already over.

I got out of the camera clutch and back into the turnbuckle, the only thing left

to do was drop the leg on it.

person to take the strap off of Bob and then give it to Hulk. It changed the

wrestling world, without a doubt. I mean, it exploded. It just went wild.

You have arrived, Hulk Hogan! Have you never seen anything as beautiful as this

meeting? This belt is part of yours, too!

The fact that he had to lose the belt to Hulk Hogan, it was like hemorrhaging a

blood vessel. It was so painful.

I'm a wrestler, not Hulk Hogan.

and I should have had the belt longer.

The Iron Sheik was that key in transitioning from the

quote -unquote real athlete to the quote -unquote real superhero.

And part of that was because the Iron Sheik was both.

I make him to be a really big star.

Without me, no Hulk Hogan to be a star.

Hulk Hogan, I'm not...

I touch you tonight from one of your people, and I'm going to make you suffer

bad. You can say pass the baton off to Hogan, but it was a brand new baton

because our industry was about to go down a road that had never been done

before. And the Sheik and the Hulk were your headliners, the biggest box office

attraction that the industry had really ever seen.

People were so happy that that son of a bitch no longer had that world title.

Taking it from the Sheik, that was huge.

Had the Iron Sheik not been generous enough and passed the torch, WWE may

never become the juggernaut we know today.

With all the heat and mad feelings that the fans had for the Iron Sheik, that

just made that win by Hulk Hogan even greater.

And that's how great of a villain he was, that he could pass that torch right

in a way that it made Hulk Hogan the biggest name in wrestling.

Hulkamania is here!

I think Sheik gave them maybe the highest element of a heel.

And Hulk gave them the highest element of a babyface at a time where that

worked. The big leg drop!

Look out, Hulk!

I think the Iron Sheik fit right in with what the WWE had planned for its brand.

Was he going to remain in the main event forever?

No. But I think that WWE had long -term plans to keep the Iron Sheik character

as part of their catalog.

And, gentlemen, there it is, the submission of the Camel's Bludgeon and

it up.

Charles Rowe did the right thing at the right time and became larger than life.

The thing that made the Sheik so unique is that a loss in a big match wasn't

going to take away his heat.

Okay, the Iron Sheik being led back to the dressing room after taking another

vicious pounding.

After losing the title to Hulk Hogan, while yes, he doesn't maintain in the

title picture, that doesn't mean another American hero can't come along.

After the Sheik loses the title to Hulk Hogan, he's immediately put into another

rivalry with Sergeant Slaughter. It's natural.

Sergeant Slaughter is a U .S. Marine. That's his character.

And the Iron Sheik is an Iranian terrorist.

That's the gimmick that he's portraying. Do I look like a domer pile?

I can't hear you, maggot.

Sergeant Slaughter was not like a good guy.

He was a bad guy, Sergeant. He did a lot of bad things to other good wrestlers.

He was a bad guy first.

The only person who could make him a good guy was Iron Sheik.

People loved Sergeant Slaughter.

He was G .I. Joe.

And then Iron Sheik, this evil bastard, has to be beaten.

We want Slaughter. Everyone wants him but the Iron Sheik.

Finch McNab Sr.

invited me out for dinner. So I started telling him, why don't you let Sergeant

Slaughter declare war on the Iron Sheik? Sergeant Slaughter, that's a miss!

And the people were so happy to see Sergeant Slaughter go

against the Iron Sheik.

Iron Sheik!

I declare war on you!

The third war on him and off to the races we went.

In a return bout, it will be what they're calling a boot camp match.

Everyone on their feet.

USA, everyone.

Now they're having highly emotional matches.

They put the Iron Sheik and Sergeant Slaughter in the main event in Madison

Square Garden. They have this very bloody match called a boot camp.

I'll never forget watching that boot camp match between the Sheik and

As a kid, I had never seen blood like that.

Suplex!

Look at the Sheik fighting now!

It was tough match, hard match, good match.

And people wants to see all this bread.

Cut!

She didn't need to win to win. He did his job and created a feeling.

That's the best win is when you get a reaction and it doesn't matter who comes

out on top.

Because of the rivalry

with Sergeant Slaughter, the Iron Sheik was main eventing.

People wanted the Iron Sheik on every card. So the Iron Sheik lost nothing in

sacrificing the title to Hulk Hogan.

Sheik obviously embraced his heritage, and that made him nothing but money.

But it made him money because of his opponents.

that were red, white, and blue, or stood for everything right in this world, and

Sheik didn't mind standing for everything wrong in this world.

Oh, he just drove a knee right into midsection?

Incredible!

At this point in time, the Sheik financially had to be doing better than

thought he would do.

I can't help it if you're too dumb to watch where you're going.

That's it!

That is straw that camel cannot carry. From now on, I am through with you. But

do it.

That cartoon, we thought, was so cool.

I mean, we were really, really enamored by the cartoon.

The cartoon made all of us superheroes.

The cartoon just put extra gas on the fire.

Anything that had Hulk Hogan or Sergeant Slaughter on it would have to have the

Iron Sheik on it. The Iron Sheik.

became a household name.

Cosmo made a lot of money on that action figure. The very first dolls that came

out, one quarter, he made $87 ,000.

I remember he got his check in the dressing room.

I believe it was a $100 ,000 check.

And I remember he thought it was $10 ,000.

The rewards are great, but the sacrifices sometimes

are even greater.

It can be a very glamorous life, but it can also be a very lonely and painful

life. I think one of the hardest things to be is a professional wrestler.

You're going to miss birthdays and big holidays and all that.

You're away from your family. You're with other wrestlers more than you are

children or your wife.

My husband was usually gone like a month or two at a time.

You know, when he got home, he didn't want to go out or be much in the public,

and he was with us all the time.

When he came home, they would run and hug and kiss him.

They adored their dad.

Nobody could touch their dad.

He was such a great role model and father, and all he wanted to do was

how to be good people.

As a father, he adores his kids. He'd give them anything, anything in his

that he could.

hard for family and myself because I was on the road all the time. I didn't see

them very often. I missed them.

The Iron Sheik's family suffered like everybody else's family, except he also

was developing a very serious drug problem.

So in some ways it can be argued that they even suffered more.

The whole package of being a wrestler in that era

was pretty dark.

Outside of the 15 minutes you are in the match and in the ring, you have to live

a very lonely life.

At times, the industry is our own worst enemy. There is that

transition from the high of the match to coming back down, and when the

adrenaline wears off, the pain steps in, and the crutch enters the

equation.

And it is a pathway to death.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a tag team match scheduled for one fall.

You know, when I think about the combination of the Iron Sheik and

Volkov, oh my gosh.

We hated Iranians. We hated the country of Iran.

From Tehran, Iran, the Iron Sheik.

And then Nikolai Volkov.

We've always hated Russia. How could you pile on any more heat?

From the Soviet Union, Nikolai Volkov.

The thing about heat in wrestling is that you really have to balance it.

And the Iron Sheik was at this place where it was maybe time to freshen it up

little bit. The Iran hostage crisis was over. So what can we do to get the

audience mad at the Iron Sheik again?

Well, what about the Cold War?

Look at this power display by the big Russians. What if

Russia and Iran

combined forces?

How much would you hate that?

And the answer that the WWE fans gave is a lot.

She was from Tehran, Iran. I was from Russia. He speaks Lebanese. I speak

Lebanese. We were real. It was no imitation, you know.

Naturally, anybody that they thought could wave the American flag in the face

Nikolai Volkov and the Iron Sheik, their fans would go crazy for them.

They wanted Nikolai to come out and go, Sheiky baby, I'm going to sing the

Russian anthem.

Whatever.

I was very happy when I saw all those people there.

When I started singing, it was great. I mean, people hated it. He came in and

sang the Russian National Anthem. It actually wasn't the Russian National

Anthem, but that's okay.

No one knew that.

Can you sing the Russian National Anthem? No, neither can I. But by God, I

sing Nikolai Volkov's version of whatever he was.

Those two.

equalled the ultimate heat. You take these two foreign evil wrestlers, put

in a team together, you know that people are going to come and see those guys.

What a matchup this is going to be.

WrestleMania delivering everything it promised to be.

WrestleMania 1 was the biggest wrestling show that the United States had ever

seen. It was before pay -per -view existed.

WrestleMania was good for me.

All this was a very...

Both of those guys worked on top. So now you put them together and you get a

whole other way to market the heat.

Big right hand by Windham, another right, another right, a series of left

rights to the body.

He's going for the bulldog.

Oh, he nailed him with it.

It's going to be in and down for the Godard as Sheik comes in. This is

notch for the Sheik. Of all these unique moments that he's been in, that proves

that you're important in the business when you win the title, especially back

then when there's only a handful of titles in the business. Look at this.

Oh, he nailed him with a chain.

Iron Sheik got a whole blast. He's paid.

He's going to get counted out here.

A new champion.

New champions of the world.

To hold a world title or tag team world title, you had to make him feel like

all this was worth it.

Iron Sheik, you finally have done it. You're now the celebration tag team

champion. You know what you mean?

All countries are best.

We come to the America to prove it. Thank you. Number one.

Number one.

Those two guys would argue with each other.

So much before and after a match is unbelievable. It was amazing that they

still remain taking partners because they were saying, you dumb son of a gun,

you're dumb.

They were always butting heads.

If something happened in the ring, they'd blame each other, and it was

hilarious.

They're all on their feet, I guarantee you that, all 93 ,000.

WrestleMania I was a huge success, and public awareness for WWE only grew and

grew and grew. And the biggest example of that is probably two years after the

first WrestleMania, when WrestleMania III happened in front of 93 Southland

people in Pontiac, Michigan, for a show like nobody in wrestling has

seen before.

Here are The Killer.

WrestleMania III was nothing more than a background for the debut of Hacksaw Jim

Duggan.

The

finish

of our match incorporated a young Jim Duggan. Jim Duggan comes running in.

and takes this 2x4, and he's wailing on Cosgrove, and we get disqualified.

This match is over right now.

Needless to say, that spawned a program between Jim Duggan and Cosgrove.

USA!

USA!

USA!

You can only imagine.

You can probably tell I'm a young guy. I got my 2x4 with a flag on it. I go

running down.

Whack, I hit nickel. I whack, I hit the sheet. I chase everybody out of the

ring. I'm standing in front of 93 ,000 people with a flag and 2x4 overheads.

Here standing up now, brother, is a moment I'll remember my whole life. It

really was.

At this time in the 80s, the use of cocaine was prevalent in all areas of

society.

Entertainers, athletes, you name it. It's a rock and roll lifestyle, brother.

mean, there's a lot of drugs, a lot of women, a lot of people got caught up in

that lifestyle, and I can't throw no stones.

The number of people snorting cocaine is rising steadily despite the steep

price. It is also increasingly popular with adults, especially among the sheep.

Apparently, the Sheik liked his medicine, and it was wrestling,

drugs, wrestling.

He was devout Muslim when he was first, you know, in amateur wrestling. And he

didn't drink, he didn't smoke.

But the problem is that pro wrestling offered so many doggone things to him

he, you know, he got lost.

Vince came in one day and said, Sheik, I need to talk to you. He said, you took

the drug test, right? Oh, yes, boss. I took the drug test. I took it. He said,

well, you came back positive. Oh, yes, sir. I'm positive, boss. I'm always

positive. You know, he tested positive for substances.

Oh, I can't believe it. Very good, right? Right?

I said, no, bro. You tested positive. That's very bad.

You know, she made headlines for a lot of the right reasons through his career.

And then there were times during his career he made them for the wrong

They are known to wrestling fans as the Iron Sheik and Hacksaw. Now, instead of

battling opponents, they are fighting drug charges together.

So right around this time, the Iron

Sheik's new American hero foe is Hacksaw Jim Duncan.

Everything, I'm on top of the world, I am.

Things are going so good for me, I cannot believe it. You know, now I'm

ready. We're wrestling in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

And the Iron Sheik and Hacksaw fly into Newark Airport, and the Iron Sheik sees

Hacksaw there, and he says, if you're going to rent a car, why don't I ride to

the show with you?

I was stuck.

I didn't have a ride to go.

I said, I'll come with you. He said, okay. He said, yeah, no problem.

The Sheik and Duggan were supposed to hate each other. One guy is the flag

-waving All -American. The other one is the Iranian terrorist.

And here they were in a car together doing illegal things.

The worst thing about it is they were going to wrestle each other that night.

So any way you looked at it, it wasn't good.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Iron Sheik get in the car together.

They stop at a liquor store along the way. They get...

Some beers for the road. They keep driving.

They get pulled over.

They've got drugs along with the alcohol in the car.

And then they got the sheik out and he carried a purse. And they open up the

purse, boom, right on top, a gram of cocaine. Now they got the sheik hooked

Now the police car, there's eight or ten police cars.

People are driving by the car. Hey, there's Hacksaw Jim and the Iron Sheik.

They got out of jail, by the way.

in time to make the show and still wrestle each other that night.

We worked together that night in Asbury Park. We didn't tell anybody, so we got

to the hotel that night. I called my wife and my cunny. I said, we got

but nobody knows about it.

She called me about 5 .30 the next morning.

Everybody knows.

Police say marijuana was found in the ashtray, and they also found cocaine in

some luggage.

By the way, Duggan and the Iron Sheik are supposed to be bitter rivals.

We went to our parents and we're like, Mom, did you see this?

And she was like, I can't believe it. I'm so disgusted. And we're like, us

What were they doing together in the same car, Mom? So the arrest of Sheik

Duggan pulled the curtain back on our industry in a way that had never really

been pulled back.

Up until this stage, even fans who knew that things were

predetermined could live in denial.

Once these mortal enemies were arrested in each other's company, it was pretty

hard to delude yourself like that.

They killed kayfabe.

Kayfabe is the good guy versus bad guy. You're always never supposed to be

together. You're never supposed to ride together.

That's the first no -no in the wrestling business. The good guys don't ride with

the bad guys.

You can't have the Ninja Turtles and Shredder in the same car driving to the

show together.

The TV says, and all I see is this Iranian over here, this Russian over

yelling, yelling out the mouth. Well, Hacksaw Jim Duggan said, take down any

man, one on one.

Great American hero, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, swore that he would defeat his enemy,

that Iranian iron sheet.

You have to live with friends in real life?

Kind of.

The curtain was pulled back. Well, I'll say this. I think the curtain was yanked

back.

And now everybody knew it was all a show.

All of a sudden, that's when it became entertainment. And it really became

bigger since that happened. We told everybody, hey, it's entertainment.

You know, that old story, for those who believe no explanation is necessary. You

know what I mean?

And news today that professional wrestler Iron Sheik has escaped the hold

some recent drug charges. The judge in Freehold yesterday dropped the charges,

providing he complete a year's probation and submit to drug testing in the

future. You know, I think the WWE still valued the Iron Sheik, and more

importantly, valued him as a human being, so they did send him to rehab at

point. We know it was a pretty low period for him. He really didn't have

going on in terms of bookings, and he would just...

take whatever he could.

He lost his job.

He came home.

He was miserable, insulting, and he started working for independent

promoters. The Sheik ended up going to WCW, but he never really picked up

traction over there. He was a long way from headlining Madison Square Garden.

was a little sad.

It was a small building, small money.

Well, he may be an Iranian champion, but he's not too smart and will be right

back. For whatever reason, Vince McMahon always had a soft spot for the Iron

Sheik.

In comes the Iron Sheik.

Another chance, because Vince...

just had a soft spot for the Iron Sheik, and that Iron Sheik didn't take Vern

Gagne's blood money, if you will, and break Paul Kogel's leg.

There was a loyalty there.

What was going on then was the Gulf War.

So we don't need an Iranian sympathizer anymore. We need an Iraqi sympathizer.

And that's where Sergeant Slaughter, of all people, comes back into the story.

We took the all -American hero, Sergeant Slaughter.

and made Sergeant Slaughter an Iraqi sympathizer. He

had a manager named Colonel Adnan,

and then the Iron Sheik would be brought back in, but this time as Colonel

Mustafa, who would be part of Sergeant Slaughter's faction, the Triangle of

Terror.

He was the thimble there. He kind of helped put it all together. The triangle

terror was really a great entity.

When we did that, it was the emergence of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

This was before we declared war on Iraq.

When we actually went to war, the WWE was too deep into the story to kind of

turn back.

So we actually had somebody on television sympathizing with the enemy

war that we were actively in, creating what I would call nuclear heat.

And so

we're shooting

for SummerSlam 91.

It's going to be Hulk Hogan, the ultimate warrior against Triangle

We go back to Madison Square Garden, and WWE puts on SummerSlam 1991.

With

Hulk

Hogan and the Ultimate Warp, at that time, two iconic heroes in WWE, facing

the entire...

triangle of terror.

Remember,

Allah always helped.

This thing was good to me, but I didn't have too much energy in my body.

In the mid -90s, Vince McMahon, once again, finds it in his heart to bring

Iron Sheik back.

This time he's not being brought in as a wrestler anymore. Those days are over.

He's brought in as a co -manager with his old enemy, Bob Backlund.

The two managed a new, not quite discernible foreign menace named the

The Sultan doesn't resonate with crowds.

Paying attention to go down to her. And the Sheik doesn't laugh at all.

The

Sheik

is really down and out at this point.

And he's struggling financially.

He wasn't making money and it was rough and we lost our house. He lost our

condo. And at one point he's on the road working in some small building and

someone turns him on to crack cocaine. And this commences a very sad

stage in the Iron Sheik's life.

He would go on a binge for like five, six days, not sleep.

He would go on binges for nights upon nights, and he wouldn't return home.

His family was in the crossfires of this era, and the sheik really, he wasn't

himself. He wasn't the guy that he was proud of. His drug use was a real

problem. It was a real issue.

The next time I ran into Cosgrove was at the gimmick battle royal in Houston,

Texas.

It was a big moment for him because he was really feeling down. He was in a

really dark period, and that match kind of gave him a boost.

WrestleMania X -7, the gimmick battle royal. They bring all of their best

gimmicks back and put them all in the ring for an over -the -top rope contest.

We had Califro introduced early because it was a long walk down to the ring.

It was probably about a 70 -yard walk to the ring, and it took Sheik

forever.

And so Bobby Heenan made the comment, he goes, By the time the Iron Sheik gets

to the ring, it'll be WrestleMania 38.

Just as I was to go out, I got grabbed, and Mr. Bandt said to me,

We got a little problem.

Sheik had put on an awful lot of weight and was very fragile.

So it's like, well, who the hell is going to get him up over the top rope?

And then if they do, what's that going to look like?

And it was decided upon that Sheik would win the thing. The reason that the Iron

Sheik was declared the victor of the match was because his knees were shot.

And so he couldn't take an over -the -top rope fall.

So in order to avoid throwing the Iron Sheik over the top rope, they just had

him win.

They were kind enough to let

him win.

It meant the world to him.

My life had many turns.

Some good.

There is no moment more impactful on the Sheik's life than the loss of his

daughter, Marissa.

This is undoubtedly the most painful part of the Iron Sheik story.

He had three daughters, Tanya, Nikki, and Marissa.

Marissa was a beautiful 27 -year -old woman.

Somewhere along the line, Marissa had found a boyfriend who, from what I

was taking more than he was giving.

We weren't impressed.

We thought, Marissa, you're so beautiful. What are you doing with this

And she was resolved to end the relationship.

And apparently when she informed him of this, he strangled her to death.

Marissa was strangulated by this gentleman, Charles Reynolds.

And then he put her body underneath a blanket and brought the covers up to her

chin and called his minister and admitted his crime.

Kaz went crazy when he found out. He screamed,

he howled, he cried.

It was just the worst time of our life.

I cry for her so much. I miss her so much.

And it breaks my heart.

It's like, why would God do this?

And we really don't know why this guy crossed into her life.

I mean, after two weeks.

It's crazy.

This is a man in severe pain who also blamed himself largely

for what happened to his daughter because he felt that if he'd been a

role model, his daughter might have made better choices, and all he was doing

was punishing himself.

This was his biggest loss, and there was nothing he could do about it, and that

was the most frustrating thing for him.

And so he kept on going to a darker place through this era.

There was an incident where the daughter's killer was in court.

And the sheik put a razor blade in his mouth.

And he was planning to go up to the front of the courtroom and cut the man's

throat.

Yeah, my plan, I kill him and take his head off.

But if I kill the girl, still my daughter is gone anyway.

He was ready to go to prison for the rest of his life to get revenge.

And fortunately, his family physically leaned their bodies against him to

prevent him from doing that. They said, no, Daddy, I can't lose you. I just lost

my sister. I can't lose my dad.

I think that that resonated with him, and that's why he didn't, at that

you know, come at him.

The man was not attacked.

He went back to his cell.

and the Sheik's surviving children still had their father.

After the Iron Sheik's daughter died, there wasn't much positivity in the Iron

Sheik's life. He really was a lost soul, and he didn't have a lot to look

forward to.

And then 2005, WWE decides to induct... the major stars of WrestleMania

I into the Hall of Fame, including the Iron Sheik. I could stand up here for

many, many hours talking about the Iron Sheik. It's a real life. It's a real

life story.

And the Hall of Fame means everything to us because it means we're recognized by

our business and by our peers.

Oh, to the Hall of Fame was a great feeling.

It really meant a lot to him, and even to this day, that is something he

absolutely cherishes.

I think that that was the highlight of his life, and he just let everything out

on all the hardships he had endured over the years to get to that point.

I used to drive the truck, put on the ring, pick up the ring, yeah.

And I was referee.

I pay my dues.

You know, it was Sheik's moment in the sun, and Sheik got exactly what he

deserved. I mean, he stole the show that night.

I was 184, but I was so much.

Fall in love with wrestling.

He tells a story. He stops.

He starts again.

Everyone applauds.

They think his story is over. He tells another

story. He thanks everybody.

Everyone applauds.

And then he tells another story.

I want to say again.

I want to say again.

Probably one of the greatest induction speeches of all time.

That meant the world to him.

Why wouldn't it? My God, man. You sacrificed your whole life and your

get a friggin' ring?

Well, not yet.

The fact that I got one and you don't.

God bless you guys.

Ya Allah.

Ya Muhammad.

Ya Ali. Peace.

Peace. Peace. We got a telephone call.

After years of watching the Iron Sheik struggle, after years of financial

insecurity, after heartbreak, after one rehab stint after another, his wife

Carol just had to leave him. She was just fed up.

I found out he was using crack cocaine with another one of his fellow

wrestlers and got to the point where we couldn't stand him around.

We never knew what kind of personality he would have.

You say that Iron Sheik is a heavy drug addict.

At home, up here, when he's with me, he's perfect.

Right. What's going on, Sheik? I'm worried about you. I don't like to eat.

Come tell me I spent the money for the crack or coke or marijuana.

Are we lying? You're lying.

I'm not lying. You're lying. Me? I remember thinking at the time I didn't

like there was any way he would come back from where he had gone to as far as

how far gone he had gone on the drug. The best thing that ever happened was my

mom leaving him.

When I finally left him, that's when he stopped drinking, smoking, all

drugs, everything.

Despite many trips to rehab, it was that woman that cleaned him up. And he did

it for her and his kids. And it brought back the dad we knew as little girls,

the sweet, drug -free, alcohol -free man who loved and worshipped his wife and

daughters.

He went back to being the man he was meant to be, the man who his parents

Koshrau of the Immortal Soul.

From Tehran, Iran, the Iron Sheik.

Sheik's legacy, an icon, a legend.

It's like a book of fiction. The odds of a kid from Iran being a household name

in American pop culture, it's really hard to wrap your head around that.

I've always felt like he completely defined the American dream.

As far as Iranians and Iranian -Americans and how the diaspora of

Iranians in this country.

I found their way.

Part of that gateway was the Iron Sheep.

Perhaps one of the most sadistic men in professional wrestling today.

To this day, probably one of the biggest heroes in our business. You could

make the argument, and I would,

that without the Iron Sheep, Hulk Hogan, Hulkamania large.

would not have been as effective.

And if it hadn't been as effective, who knows if WWE or pro wrestling as we know

it would look anything like it does today.

I think he's made his mark in history as one of the innovators, one of the legit

bad guys that people love to hate.

He's one of the best.

Are you kidding? One of the top deals ever.

Man, he embodies what it means to be like a perfect villain.

I'm going to beat you up.

I'm going to beat you up. Oh, disgusting.

He's a bad guy.

But I love him.

There's a lot of you out there that do too.

Like all of us love him. And now today, he's so respected.

To this day, you see the Iron Sheik and there's no one like him.

Yeah, he was iconic.

It is the winner, the Iron Chief!

I love wrestling, and if I was in good shape and healthy, I'd do it again.